Events

Sandra Comer, PhD, professor of neurobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, will discuss the pharmacological effects of fentanyl and how they differ from other mu opioid receptor-selector agonists. She will also present current clinical data on how fentanyl is affecting treatment of opioid use disorder and describe how biologics such as vaccines and monoclonal antibodies may be used to address the fentanyl crisis.

Dr. Comer is Director of the Opioid Laboratory in the Division of Substance Use Disorders at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her current research focus is on the clinical testing of medications for treating opioid use disorder, methods to maximize the use of naloxone by opioid users, and evaluations of the comparative abuse liability of prescribed pain medications. Dr. Comer is a past president of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) and is currently the Public Policy for CPDD. She received her BS at Vanderbilt University and her PhD at the University of Michigan for her research on the effects of drugs using preclinical models. She has written more than 160 publications related to substance use disorder and provided expert testimony, reports, and presentations to congressional subcommittees, the FDA, and the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence.